Design

Design in Libraries is Serious, but Sometimes We Need Fun

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday and Happy (Almost) Halloween, dear readers! So I think graphic design, and design generally, in libraries is a serious business. How we present ourselves visually, how well we communicate, and how intuitive our services and resources are to use are of great importance to the effective and efficient functioning of our libraries. However, just because it is serious doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun, especially so close to Halloween.

The first piece I ever got published when I became a librarian was a short piece about having fun as a librarian and how important that was to growth. I thought it was obvious. There’s lots of research about the value of play and how integral it is to work and life, especially if you want to be balanced and creative. I thought it would be a short article to get my feet wet and a piece that would help others see that adding some levity to their days could help out. Most saw it that way, but I still recall one comment that said fun and play had no business in an academic library and they’d never want to work with someone who thought that way. I guess not everyone is into playing and doing things differently. But in any case, I still think play is important in libraries and especially when we talk about design work. And what better time to think about play than on the eve of a holiday that is all about play and fun: Halloween.

So for the Halloween fun, here’s a spooky, fun, and somewhat scary look at monsters in literature. Be warned the banner image is a clown. If that isn’t terrifying, I don’t know what is.

Also, for Halloween fun, check out Smashing Magazine’s free Halloween icon set. Not terrifying, even kind of cute, icons that you can use for some last minute designs. Because Halloween means time for designing, right? 🙂

Back in the library, don’t be afraid to play with your designs and try new things. Even if you have a branding manual, you can still play. Sometimes events call for using Chiller in a huge font size on a banner announcing a costume contest or scary book reading. Sometimes you need to allow yourself the room to play with a new icon set for creating some lovely spook-tacular bookmarks to hand out for anyone checking out a frightful book for the weekend. And sometimes you need to tell yourself that even if you get it wrong with your designs, it isn’t the end of the world and no one is going to ship you off as fodder for the Headless Horseman. You always have next time to get it right and you’ll probably learn something along the way.

Design in libraries is serious business, but it is also great fun. Don’t lose track of that and I know you’ll not only create some great designs, but you’ll also enjoy the process.

Hope you have a fantastic, fun-filled, beautifully designed weekend. Allons-y!

Thinking about Design, Committees, and Libraries

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday, dear readers. I hope your week has gone well and you have some fun planned for the weekend. Today I wanted to take a little time to share some thoughts on design and libraries. Or, more specifically design by committees, potential pitfalls, and a way forward.

I think about library design a lot. I can’t help it. One of my great loves is for good design, specifically good graphic design. I have an incorrigible habit of volunteering to design or re-design things for my library, even when I really have enough to do because I can’t stand having something get printed up or posted online that doesn’t reflect well on our library. Plus, I love design. I love the challenges and constraints and being able to communicate well visually.

I also think about library design a lot because I research graphic design and librarians. In an upcoming paper, I share information about best practices and processes already in place at libraries (article will be published soon, I hope, since it was accepted). One of the takeaways from my research thus far is the variation of how design processes are handled at libraries and the costs & benefits of design committees. Like all committees, design committees at a library can either be a blessing or a curse and either way, there is sometimes no way around a committee. But I wanted to talk a bit about how we can make the most of design committees.

First, try to get people on your design committee that actually know something about design. That always helps. If the people making the decisions don’t know about design, how can you expect to have great, or even good design, come out of the committee? Common sense, but sometimes committees are filled more by seniority or crystal ball than by actual experience or knowledge. So if you have control over a design committee, get people who know something about design.

Second, make sure your mandate and authority are clear. If you don’t know what you’re supposed to do or how much authority/control you have over the design work in your library, you are being set up for failure. Don’t allow it and get as clear of an answer as possible from whoever implemented the committee and has final approval over the designs you’ll produce.

Perhaps most importantly, remember that you aren’t going to please everyone with your design work and that’s okay. As Seth Godin wrote about the 2% who misunderstand you, they aren’t the ones you are designing for. You are never going to please everyone. If you try to, your designs will become so watered down and boring that it would have been better just to stick with the clip art and default typefaces you were using all along; at least then you would have saved time. Design is about function and form, but also about beauty and aesthetics. Not everyone agrees on those last two. Make your peace with that and, if you can’t, doing design work for your library is probably not for you.

Just like we shouldn’t create library policies based on one or two squeaky wheels, we shouldn’t make design decisions based on the squeaky wheels. Be bold, be daring, make a mark with your library’s designs whether online or in print, on a huge banner, in the remodel of a study room, or the sign-up form for your programs. Merge utility and beauty to create amazing functionality and fabulous form. Solve problems and present improvements, do user testing and read the research, and then get your committee moving. Don’t wait; don’t fuss; just make.

I wish you all the best in your design work at your library. I’ll be back with more thoughts and research updates. Until then, I wanted to share a couple more things that may interest you as a librarian designer. One, planner subscription services, who knew? Not me, but they look fabulous and fun. I’ve actually been ruling a personalized planner in a Rhodia journal my husband bought me. I couldn’t find a planner I liked at our indie bookstore and thought, why not make my own? So far so good. Also, another lovely freebie from Smashing Magazine: Office and Business Icon Set. Love these icon sets. Great, classy alternatives to the dreaded clip arts. Reward yourself and your designs and download this set!

Have a wonderful day and weekend. Allons-y!

Design Fun for Friday

/ dwakimoto

Hello, dear readers! I hope your Friday is going well and you have lovely plans for the weekend. For today, I wanted to share some design and inspiration resources as we head into the weekend.

I love Smashing Magazine. Great posts, tips, and inspiration. Plus, every once in a while they post freebies, including awesome icon sets. I love these icon sets for creating graphics for my library, especially helpful when trying to freshen up some of our brochures to make them more user friendly. To get you started in the world of their icon sets, I thought I’d share the link to the Smashicons Icon Set that has 500 icons! Pretty nifty. Plus they recently released the World Landmark Icon Set that is also lovely.

I love calligraphy. I don’t think that is a secret. But I do think more people should get into calligraphy because it seems like handwriting is a dying art and beautiful writing is important. So whether you love calligraphy or just want to watch a beautiful video, check out the short Ink. You’ll be glad you did.

As we near the end of Banned Books Week, I thought we could all use a little inspiration and what better place to get it than from books? So check out this infographic of inspiring quotes from children’s books.

I hope you have a lovely weekend full of beautiful moments and time with what makes you happiest. I’ll be back soon. Allons-y!

Design in Libraries

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday! I hope your week has gone well, dear readers. It was the first week of the quarter here, or rather the first two days of classes. Technically called Week Zero, but that doesn’t seem to make much sense to me, so I call it the first week. But that is neither here nor there. Today I just wanted to share a few thoughts about design and some other interesting things as we move into autumn.

First, I really think everyone needs to read this article from Smashing Magazine on how designers can stop being an afterthought. It’s a really good article, so I’ll just wait here quietly until you get back. Read it? Great. So I think that even if librarians don’t consider themselves designers, this article is really useful for our work. One of the things that I was told through my research so far into librarian designers is that they sometimes feel that design is an afterthought in their libraries. Too many people equate design with making things pretty instead of solving problems. So it is time we change that in libraries, and not just for the huge projects at big libraries with lots of funding and splashy programs. We can change that and we need to change that.

There are a lot of great suggestions in the article to re-educate people about design work (it’s not about the decorations), re-brand design work as strategic (because it already is), and improve our own work (because we can always improve). I love the reminder to talk the jargon of the administration and decision-makers at your library. If they don’t have a background in design, they can just be hearing “decoration” or “make things pretty” in their heads instead of “functional user interface” or “accessible, intuitive wayfinding.” Use the jargon you need to get the job done. Everyone at my university is always talking about strategic planning, so much talk about strategic planning, that it is a great place to jump in with strategy talk about design, especially since part of our planning is involving revamping our library’s website.

As librarian designers, we solve problems. Design, graphic design, all design solves problems and gives us the ability to communicate better. So let’s look at being the sometimes afterthought as a problem to solve and get on it.

Since it is autumn, I just had to share this fall foliage map. I’m looking forward to seeing the trees outside my office window turn colors again this year.

Also, because I don’t yet want to let the feeling of being able to travel anywhere through my summer reading slip away, I have to share this lovely image from This Is Indexed. Now if only I could read as much when the school year starts as I do in the summer, life would be even better.

And, finally, because it is Friday and Fridays need some fun, I give you this hilarious comic by xkcd.

vet by xkcd

vet by xkcd

I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day and lovely weekend. Allons-y!

Type in the Wild: Store Signs

/ dwakimoto

Hello, dear readers! I hope your week is going well. Can you believe we are nearing the end of July? I can’t hardly either. I’ve just gotten back from a visit with family, which was lovely. Although the best part was spending time with my family, one of the fun things we did was visit downtown Flagstaff. I’d never been before and was happy to spot so many wonderful, interesting, and fun store signs while there. As I was writing about typography in my last post, it seemed too good not to share. So today, some thoughts on store signs before I head off.

I’m sharing four photos of signs I saw in Flagstaff that I thought were interesting. I was excited to see so many store signs and such a variety of typefaces used in the compact downtown. First up is a photo of the aspen loft artists’ sign.

Sign for aspen loft artists

Sign for aspen loft artists

I really like this sign (what would you expect but a lovely sign for an artists’ loft?). Although slightly difficult to see in this photo, the “t” in “loft” is actually an arrow pointing up, a fun touch for this sign. I also like the combination of the large serif “a” in “artists” combined with the rest of the lettering in san serif. A nice combination and nod to the older family of typefaces (serifs) along with the newer (san serifs). Also, the kerning is great. Nothing worse than a poorly kerned sign, as xkcd reminds us.

This next sign for Babbitt’s Mercantile is fun and reminds me of the typeface game we played in one of the letterpress classes I took when we tried to determine the feel of different type and when we would use it.

Babbitts Mercantile

Babbitts Mercantile

The typefaces picked for this mercantile store (a camping and outdoor gear store) make it look like it’s been around for a long time. The typefaces picked look like they could have been used in a flyer set with a platen press and fastened to the local news board. They are fun and work well as display type (not something you’d want to read an entire paragraph in, but great at large sizes for a name or headline). I was a bit sad not to see the same typefaces used on the store’s website, but they caught my eye walking around Flagstaff.

Being a college town, there were a lot of pubs and bars in downtown Flagstaff and they all had interesting signs. However, I had to show the sign for Uptown Pubhouse because of its coat of arms.

Uptown Pubhouse

Uptown Pubhouse

Doesn’t it look like it should be hanging in a street in London rather than in Flagstaff? The coat of arms says history and age, even though we can see that it is just over two decades old. The typeface is a serif, though one that looks a bit more modern than say choosing a Blackletter typeface. It is a striking sign that is also featured on the pub’s website, a nice tie for branding.

The last sign I wanted to share is something different from the pub and much more lighthearted in its use of type.

The Sweet Shoppe & Nut House

The Sweet Shoppe & Nut House

This sign is fun, light, and sweet, just like the candy (and gelato) found inside. The colors (pink and green), along with the typefaces chosen, make it look like an inviting and slightly silly place to cure your chocolate craving. It just goes to show that a typeface that would have no place on a sign for a Celtic-inspired pub or a mercantile can look just right for a candy shop.

So that’s it for me today in typography and signs. I love seeing custom signs with something other than the standard typefaces we see everyday when staring at our computer screens or reading a book. Display typefaces are so much fun, especially when used in creative ways that seem to convey the essence of a business. So much type, so little time! I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week, dear readers. Allons-y!

Why Librarian Designers Need to Know about Typography

/ dwakimoto

Hello, dear readers! I hope your week is going well and you had a lovely weekend. I can hardly believe we are almost half-way through July, especially with the especially gloomy morning weather we have here in the Bay Area. But no matter, we must carry on with our work and our blogging. Today I want to talk just a little bit about typography and why I think it is so important for librarians and especially librarian designers to understand.

First, what’s a librarian designer? Good question. I use the phrase to denote librarians who have responsibility for graphic design in their library. I’m talking about a piece of graphic design today, typography, which is very important (and fun) for everyone to understand a bit more about. However, it is especially important for librarians who design graphics for their libraries.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot since ALA Annual since I had some really lovely conversations with people during my poster session. I’d been thinking a lot about graphic design in general as I’ve been processing the results of my survey of librarian designers and reviewing what and how they talked about typography in relation to what they’ve designed. I’ve also been reading the book Useful, Usable, Desirable by Aaron Schmidt and Amanda Etches, which is being used by my library’s UX team to look at the over user experience and design decisions at my library. It’s quite a good book and obviously can’t cover everything, but I know a lot of librarians are using the book, so I thought I’d use this post as a starting point to talk a bit more about typography than could be covered in it.

It is difficult sometimes to know what typeface to use when designing a poster, flyer, web banner, etc., especially if there are no guidelines on type at your library. This situation can be made more difficult if you don’t know the history of typefaces or haven’t given a lot of thought about the original uses of various typefaces, why they were created, and what emotions they evoke. So it can be very tempting, as the above book notes, just to pick Helvetica. It seems like everyone is using Helvetica now. But just because everyone is using it, doesn’t make it right for you.

There seems to be a myth that Helvetica is neutral. No typeface is neutral. Every typeface speaks and conveys emotion. That’s why we have different reactions to different typefaces. That’s why we have a different reaction to Uncial than we often do to Comic Sans than to Centaur. San serifs might look more plain than a serif or display typeface, but don’t mistake that for neutrality.

One of my favorite typography blogs, I Love Typography, had a wonderful article on Helvetica, The Last Word on Helvetica?, that I highly suggest reading. It is a great read and reminds us that choosing a typeface is like choosing a tool. A hammer or a pick ax is not always the right tool for the job and neither is Helvetica.

I’m not disputing that a library should have a branding manual that includes typefaces that are to be used in different situations. I’m disputing that Helvetica, or really any typeface, should be considered a default without considering what it is being used for. The same typeface that is appropriate for a webpage content area is not going to be the same that is most useful for a printed newsletter. Nor is it going to be most useful blown up to four inches tall on a poster. We have to consider the content and the format of each project before settling on a typeface. If we don’t take this care, it shows in our designs and they won’t succeed in communicating in the best possible way that we can.

So why do librarian designers need to know about typography? Because it is important. We are visual creatures and we read so much every day. We communicate visually through text and images and if we don’t have thought as to why we are choosing a certain typeface then we are missing out on the opportunity to make that typeface enhance our message. The point is communication and communicating in the most effective way possible. And we can’t do that if we aren’t consciously choosing the type we use, if we haven’t thought of the applicability of the typeface to the product we are creating. That’s why librarian designers need to understand typography, so we can communicate effectively no matter what we are designing.

While obviously this short post isn’t going to get into the history and intricacies of typography, I hope it has convinced you that type is important and shouldn’t be an afterthought. We look at type everyday; it is ubiquitous and important. As librarian designers, it is our duty to understand at least a little bit about typefaces in order to ensure our library can communicate effectively through all our designs. Besides, geeking out over typefaces is fun and we all need some fun in our work.

That’s all I have for now. If you want to learn more about typography, there are any number of wonderful resources available. Obviously the above mentioned I Love Typography blog is a great resource. Right now I’m reading Just My Type, which is wonderful. I loved The Typographic Desk Reference and hope the 2nd edition comes out soon. Thinking with Type is another great reference.

I hope you have a wonderful week. I’ll be back with more thoughts and news next time. Allons-y!

Friday Design

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope you’ve had a good week and that you have lovely plans for the weekend. This is the last week of classes before final exam week here so it has been a bit of a crazy rush and I’m glad for a couple of days off. But before we hit the weekend, I wanted to share some fun design sources with you that may inspire you to finally clean up your photo organization or go take some beautiful photos this weekend.

This article by Lifehacker on 10 ways to improve your messy photo collection is chocked full of great tips to get a handle on your digital photos. As an archivist, I can’t tell you how much I dread getting digital records that have no coherent filing system. For your own piece of mind and for your own ability to access your photos, find an organizational system that works for you and clean your photo files. For me, I still love printing out photos and putting them in albums to share, but I’m old fashioned that way.

Also in the realm of photography, check out Gizmodo’s article on how to take better photos using your camera’s mode dial. While I love the convenience of the camera on my phone, nothing beats having a DSLR for taking photos. Also, while it can be intimidating at first, it is also a lot of fun to learn and don’t let anyone ever make you feel bad when you are learning. (Last bit because I unwisely looked at a few of the comments and was annoyed at people being rude about beginners learning photography.)

I have to say that I love having new desktop backgrounds and so I’m always excited to see the new crop of designs over at Smashing Magazine each month. Check out the June 2015 desktop wallpaper calendars to freshen your desktop. I love the owl one. 🙂

Finally, because most things I design aren’t complete without some use of type, I had to share this month in typography by I Love Typography. So much inspiration in this post!

I hope you have a lovely weekend full of inspiring things to do and people to see. I’ll be back soon with more. Allons-y!

Organization and Creativity as Partners

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope your week has been lovely and you have some fun planned for the weekend. Before we get to the weekend, however, I wanted to take a few minutes to share some ideas about organization and creativity that I’ve been thinking about this week. I have numerous projects going on at the moment so I’ve been thinking a lot about how to be organized to get everything done, but I’ve also been thinking a lot about how to partner organization with creativity and how that works in my life and work.

So I didn’t want to talk about creative organization. I think there are enough blogs out there writing about that. Instead I just wanted to share a few observations about how organization and creativity, at least for me, are partners instead of head-butting opposites. I know that there are people out there who believe that creativity has to be messy and I’d agree. But having a messy creativity process, like getting paint on the floor or ink on your wrists from all the edits on your manuscript are not the same as being unorganized. Sure, creativity is messy, just look at my kitchen table when I’m writing or my work desk when I’m creating a new tutorial or video for my classes. It’s a super-big mess, maybe one that I’ll share sometime with pictures. It’s messy, but it isn’t unorganized.

Being organized for me is a way of saving time and headspace so I can devote more energy to being creative. If my stuff is organized (and I have less of it to organize), then I don’t waste precious minutes or hours searching for what I need, be it some more fountain pen ink, my audio recorder, or a stack of notes for a video script. I’m a firm believer in putting things away, in the same place, every time. It not only keeps it organized, but then I don’t have to try to remember where I last saw something. I know where it is.

This, in turn, allows me to free up space in my head to organize thoughts and projects. Do you ever have days when it feels like the index cards or files in your brain are all hodge-podge on the floor? That each thought you have scurries away before you can link it to the next? I feel like that sometimes, but notice that I feel that way a lot less if I’ve been diligent about organizing my stuff, my time, and my projects. Then I actually have the room in my head to make connections I’d otherwise miss in the noise and I’m calm enough to get something new done. And, I like that.

One of the projects I’m currently working on is a poster session for ALA Annual. I’ll be there on Sunday, June 28th, from 2:30 to 4:00 pm in the Exhibit Hall. You can see details about the poster session here. I’d love it if you’d stop by. We can talk graphic design and libraries. It will be fun or at least hopefully not awkward. I’ll be posting more about poster design as I continue to work on them in the coming weeks.

I hope you have a wonderful spring weekend. I’ll be back soon. Allons-y!

Creativity and One Design Tip

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope you’ve had a lovely week and are looking forward to a lovely weekend. Also, Happy National Library Week! We’ve had a week of events here at the library, which has made for a fun (and busy) week. I enjoyed designing posters and flyers for our events so I wanted to talk a bit about creativity today as well as start talking about design. Since one of my new research areas is looking at graphic design and libraries, I wanted to start sharing some of that on this blog. So let’s get into it.

First, I had to share this article from Lifehacker on How You’re Sabotaging Your Creativity Every Day. Go ahead and read it; I’ll wait for you here. I really like this article. It is a good reminder that we shouldn’t feel like we need to copy someone else’s schedule to be more creative. It is about what works best for us. And, if you need one, the article gives you the excuse to keep working on side projects, which I think is great. I would also add that we have to give up the myth that we just wait around for the muse to strike to be creative or that we have to keep a totally rigid schedule to be creative. I think it is great to have a schedule and figure out your best times to work. It helps to be consistent and work consistently as you are more likely to train your brain to know when you are “being creative.” But, on the flip side, not all of us can always keep a consistent schedule for our creative work. I’ll give you an example.

While not the most creative work I do, I would argue that writing up research articles takes a measure of creativity. You have to synthesize literature, you have to be creative in spotting where you can make a contribution, and you have to ultimately write up your findings in a way that will get accepted for publication if you want to share out your results in the peer-reviewed literature. Being in a position where publication is expected, I do this quite often and it is definitely a creative and at times exhausting process. When I first started in my position, I could only write in the mornings and only if I had long, uninterrupted stretches of time. When I first started, I also had fewer commitments on campus which made this possible. Shutting the door actually worked and I could get work done. But now, almost 7 years on, I rarely am able to take a day away from campus (or even a half day) to dedicate to writing. It’s kinda sad, but at the same time, I’m much better now at using 15, 20 minute breaks in my day to write and revise articles. My last article, which I’m currently revising, was written completely in small time pockets at work. So while I’m a huge fan of scheduling writing/drawing/creating time, I think it is also important to maintain flexibility to still be creative (and productive) when scheduling problems throw a kink in our best laid plans. Life happens, but we can still create.

On that note, I just wanted to share one design tip today. If you are interested in graphic design and are a librarian, look for inspiration and experience outside of the library field. Don’t confine yourself to literature, webinars, courses, etc. that are written only within our field. One of the best, fondational books I just read for graphic design was Best Practices for Graphic Designers: Grids and Page Layouts. It is an excellent introduction to using grids to organize your designs and the importance of planning before creating designs. I highly recommend it.

I hope you have a lovely weekend planned full of everything that makes you happy. I’ll be back next week with more news and notes. Allons-y!

Designing and Being Brave

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope your week has gone well and you have a wonderful weekend planned. I can hardly believe we’ll be in April next week. The time really does pass quickly, even if the spring days are getting longer here in the Bay Area. Today I just want to share a few links and thoughts about designing and being brave. I’ve been doing a lot of graphic design work this week so these two topics are on the forefront of my mind.

We’re getting ready for a week of National Library Week events at my library and I volunteered to take the lead on designing flyers, posters, and handouts for our events, so I’ve been doing a lot of graphic design work this week. And I love it, but it does take a significant amount of time, which I don’t mind because designing is one of the most fun tasks, outside of teaching and research, that I get to do. But it does mean that I have to be brave because when the posters go up and the handouts get given away, my designs are out there for potential criticism, which can be scary, even if you’re not designing something for some major campaign.

So I re-read this Lifehacker post on How to be braver in your everyday life and wanted to share it because I’m thinking a lot about being braver in everyday life, especially when it comes to sharing out my work and designs. Creating is super-fun, but sharing those creations can be a fear-producing thing because then it is in the public and not everyone will always like what you do. But I figure if I can handle the barbs (and sometimes incredibly unprofessional comments) from anonymous peer reviewers of my research, I can handle criticism of my designs. So that’s my baby way of being a bit braver and sharing out a bit more. I have to give a shout-out to Online Northwest because my presentation on graphic design there went over well, which has given me a lot more confidence to be brave about volunteering for design work and suggesting things at work.

I love hearing from artists about their work processes and what they love about what they do, so I obviously loved James White in this short video, How professional designers create their posters. I love how enthusiastic graphic designer, James White, is about his work and it looks awesome. If only all our library posters could look so cool and have such thought put into their designs.

One great way to make awesome posters or other designs for the library, or really for anything, is to start with a great photograph. So I had to share this lovely video on nine tips for photography composition, which uses amazing photographs by Steve McCurry to illustrate the tips. Watch and learn, or if it is all review for you, just admire the beautiful photographs.

I hope these videos and articles have pushed you, maybe, just a bit, into thinking about how you can be a little bit braver in your life and/or your library. Maybe they’ve inspired you, just a bit, to take a second look at a sign in your library or a flyer or a handout and think about how you might be able to improve it, just a bit. Or maybe you’re inspired to go out and capture some moments from you weekend. In any case, I hope you have a fantastic weekend and I’ll be back soon with more news and notes. Allons-y!